A Letter To Me
My parents just gave me my childhood documents for me to decide whether I wanted to keep them or not. The majority of the files were educational in nature, but a solid percentage of the files were legal documents. As many of my regular blog readers know, as a child I was involved with a lawsuit against the public schools to provide me with a qualified American Sign Language interpreter. The story, “Mom’s Gone Fighting The Deaf Wars” is chronicled here.
As I went through the files, I found a letter addressed to me from our attorney, Kary Love. I don’t remember reading this letter when I first received it, but as I read it again as an adult sixteen years later, there are no words for me to describe how deeply powerful this letter is. Thank you Kary, for writing this letter.
Dear Jeannette:
It was very nice to see you again at the hearing. I understand from speaking with your mother that you were not too happy about having to testify again. I wanted to write to you to let you know that, no matter how the case turns out, it was important for you to take a stand. The Special Education laws come from a famous Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. This case established the legal principle, based on the Constitution, that all people are entitled to an equal opportunity for a public education. In that case, black people successfully challenged “separate but equal” schools based on race.
In your case, you are standing up for the principle that deaf students are entitled to an equal opportunity for education by being afforded interpreters who can make their time in school meaningful. Since you are bright and can excel in school, you have a special responsibility to assert your rights, not only for your own benefit, but to advance the rights of all disabled kids many of whom cannot stand up for themselves.
By doing this, you become one of many Americans who have sacrificed to make the Constitution a living, meaningful “supreme law of the land.” Those who went before you suffered embarrassment, harassment and even were jailed before the laws protecting equal rights were adopted. You have continued their fight, and made their sacrifices worthwhile, by not letting the laws they fought for be stripped of meaning. I know it was hard, but as I am sure your parents have told you, most things worth achieving are hard. Keep up the good work.
Very truly yours,
Kary Love
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Copyright ©Jeannette Johnson of The Deaf Edge, 2009. All rights reserved.
The Power of Twitter
The online store, Amazon.com is now embroiled in an intense controversy due to its labeling GLBT books as adult, effectively censoring these books. This tactic apparently began back in Feburary, and it wasn’t until this weekend, when Twitter bloggers took up the cause with the tag of #amazonfail, that Amazon.com declared it was a glitch and they’re supposedly investigating it now.
This kind of cyber-activism is right up the alley of the Deaf Community. We are well-versed in cyber-activism, as DeafRead’s official blog post stated. Imagine if we started to do more than just letting DeafRead link to us, but also started to link to each other’s blog posts, which would lead to our blog ranks increasing in many search engines, making us even easier to find.
Then we twittered about it with the right tags.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that DeafRead doesn’t do enough for the Deaf Community. However, if we truly want to effect social change as so many of us claim, we have to reach out beyond the borders of our community, to the masses.
Just like the GLBT community and their allies did on Twitter to take on Amazon.com and their shameful censoring of GLBT books. So what are we waiting for? *tweets*
Twisted Irony
For those who follow the news, it’s impossible to escape any news story about Rod Blagojevich, the Governor of Illinois who was impeached yesterday by the Illinois House. The more the news expose him, the more unbelievable how corrupt this guy is.
On September 12, 2007 Governor Blagojevich signed Illinois Senate Bill 259, which established statewide licensing standards for registered interpreters for the deaf.
Then it was publicized on CNN and on some media outlets this week that Blagojevich hired a woman to interpret for the deaf, when her only experience was a one-week class in sign language when she was in grade school.
Talk about twisted irony…!
Audism Runs Amok in Hollywood!
There’s an uproar in the Deaf Community over how we were portrayed in the recent episode of ‘Cold Case’. A Deaf person murdered a cochlear implanted person over the implant. Now, I haven’t seen the episode myself, but a comment (#31) over on MishkaZena’s blog caught my attention.
This person is basically saying we’re getting upset over nothing, we’re too sensitive, being unrealistic, and s/he’s tired of listening to our complaints.
You know what? When Hollywood consistently portrays a minority in a negative light, that is an issue. The media plays a huge role in shaping public perception.
Don’t believe me? Look at how the movie “Jaws” impacted the audience’s opinion of Great White sharks. That movie barely had any grounding in reality, but after the movie’s release, the population of Great Whites actually declined and people would be more fearful of swimming in the ocean.
If it was that bad for sharks, imagine how bad it is for minorities.
Look at how Hollywood presents gays/lesbians, for instance. I cannot tell you how many people still think that all gay males are feminine or that lesbians are masculine. Where did those misconceptions come from? It obviously didn’t come solely from Hollywood and rest of the media, but it sure did play a big role.
Those minorities fought back, and no longer are the African-Americans and Native Americans being cast in such a negative light on a consistent basis. It’s slowly changing for the gay/lesbian communities as well, but it still has a while to go.
In terms of the Deaf Community, Hollywood’s recent presentation of us has been mainly negative. Those who ASL Deaf are supposedly rabid CI haters who would resort to murder to stop the spread of CIs. Give me a break! If they varied it’s portrayal of us, then I along with so many others wouldn’t be objecting to what’s going on.
Call to Arms – Lying To Ourselves?
Deaf Education. That word carries so much meaning and controversy. A ideological war has been waged over Deaf Education for the past two hundred years. Now, I am seeing people call for arms for deaf children and babies to be given the right to access American Sign Language so that they may receive the opportunity to a good education.
By no means am I opposed to that. I am heartened to see the increasing exchange of knowledge and a growing maturity on our part. We are starting to come into our own and ensure our right to American Sign Language.
What puzzles me however, is that despite the call to arms for American Sign Language in Deaf Education, there is an eerie silence regarding North Carolina School of the Deaf. Initially there wasn’t enough information for me to throw in my support one way or another. But now, I feel that there is enough information for myself and others in the Deaf Community to support the students, parents and staff of NCSD.
Yet, I see no wide outcry of support for NCSD. I see no organizations of and for the Deaf coming in to help the students, staff and parents of NCSD. This leaves me with some difficult questions in my mind. Why is there such a loud silence? Is it because people know picketing at NCSD won’t work and they rather just picket, and nothing more?
A call to arms to me, means doing everything possible under the sun. Documenting what happens, damned the ire of others. Being not anonymous. Dealing with personal confrontations professionally and documenting it afterwards. Organizing with like-minded individuals who share your concerns and pooling together the documents. Speaking with the government about what’s going on and showing them the evidence. Helping others learn those tools. Giving support to others who need it.
It’s not glamorous. It’s not easy. It’s not something that will land you on the front page of the newspapers immediately. It’s not gonna get you on national news because there’s almost no opportunity for you to make yourself a martyr.
But the fight at NCSD and similar places goes at the core of what matters in Deaf Education. That is where the trenches are at. That is where the battles are won, and ultimately, the war. Where are we? Why are the trenches empty?
Petitions
Some students at NTID have set up a petition for the removal of a plaque honoring AG Bell, and it has over 160 signatures at the time of this writing. I think it’s cool that people are pulling together for something that they care about, and I hope the petition is successful. AG Bell does not deserve to be honored.
However, what strikes me the most are people’s apparent priorities. When I started the Bahl petition, a petition to object against police brutality against the Deaf, the Bahl petition barely squeaked past a hundred signatures.
Judging by the amount of signatures on the two petitions, police brutality is not as important for the Deaf Community as removing a plaque from a dorm and renaming said dorm.
I can’t help but wince at that.
Yes, We Can!
IamMine forwarded me this video, and much to my surprise, Shoshannah Stern, the deaf actress in the television show, Jericho is in it! This is an awesome video. The lyrics are below the video.
Song & video, featuring a star cast, by Will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas.
Lyrics:
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.
Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes we can to justice and equality.
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.
Yes we can heal this nation.
Yes we can repair this world.
Yes we can.
We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics…they will only grow louder and more dissonant ……….. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.
Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea –
Yes. We. Can
